SHANGHAI—Rescuers used shovels, pry bars and their bare hands to dig through the rubble of collapsed homes and schools as they raced to find survivors of a severe earthquake that authorities said killed about 400 people and injured roughly 10,000 in a remote, predominantly Tibetan community in western China. The quake hit shortly before 8 a.m. Wednesday, jolting mountainous Yushu prefecture, part of the Chinese province of Qinghai on the Tibetan plateau, and flattening most of the town of Jiegu, one of the area's main population centers. About 97% of the people in Yushu are ethnically Tibetan. Many earn their living raising yaks, sheep and horses. As darkness fell and temperatures dipped below freezing in Jiegu, hundreds of soldiers, troops from the paramilitary People's Armed Police and other emergency workers searched the wreckage looking for signs of life. Injured townspeople were being treated at improvised medical centers in the town's central square and at a horse-racing track, officials said. “We are short of equipment,” said Guoyang Zhaxi, a 42-year-old resident helping to free survivors. “So the speed of the rescue efforts is very slow.” He said nearly all houses in the town—many of which used traditional wood-and-earth construction—had been destroyed. “We need to hurry up or the people who are buried will have no hope,” he said. Chinese seismologists said the quake had a magnitude of 7.1. The U.S. Geologic Survey said the magnitude was 6.9. A series of aftershocks continued throughout the day. Specialized search and rescue teams as well as hundreds of soldiers were being sent to Yushu from elsewhere in China to assist in the hunt for survivors. added by: keithponder
